Technique Creating Depth For An Amateur Photographer

Try a tele lens

Although a wideangle lens is very useful for adding depth, it isn't th eonly choice available to you. instead, why not try using a telephoto zoom such as a 70-200mm instead. A longer focal length will give a totally different look to your landscape images, appearing to compress the distance between the foreground and background rather than exaggerating it.

the narrow depth of field associated with telephoto lenses gives you some creative possibilities as well, in this examples on the right, i selected an aperture of f/4 and focused on the windmill. which had the effect of softening the foreground flowers to a yellow blur. you'll need to move back a lot further than you would with the wideangle lends so you can still freme your shot to include the foreground at a longer foal length, but this technique works well when the foreground is a lot closer to you than it is to the background subject anyway the windmill here was on the other side of the next field!

bold elements add a lot of impact to an image, there;s a danger of the foreground overpowering the image, so compose carefully and try to avoid blocking the viewer's path into the rest of the picture. Luckily, on the wide, empty East Anglian beaches that i frequent, the freground interest is often also the main subject of the picture, so this isn;t usually a problem

TECHNIQUE

Foreground interest is a compositional tricks that works especially well with a wideangle lens as it seems to stretch perpective. THis gives objects close to the lens the appearance of being larger than normal, while those further away appear smaller, helping the photographer to emphasise the feeling od distance.

These Lenses are not without their drawbacks, though, and need to be used with care to avoid certain pitfalls. Objects close to the edges of the frame have a tendency to distort, leaving straight lines learning at an unnatural angle, so when u are composing an image, try to position any foreground objects away from the edges. if this isn't possible and you have a line of groynes, for example, leading into the frame, any distortion can be easly fixed in Photoshop. However, this will result in some cropping, so bear this in mind when composing the shot and allow extra space around the edge of the frame for any cropping later.

Keep it simple

i've heard the saying "less is more", but it's especially true with photopgraphy. A successful composition not only relies on what has been included in the photo, but what has been left out can be just as important.

Harmony is the key to creating an eye-catching photo with a simple composition. Try to find foreground and background subjects that complement each other in some way, whether it be shape, colour or something else that links them visually, and compose your shot to include only those essential element. Before pressing the shutter, remember to look around the frame for any distractions and adjust your position to try to remove them from the composition

A clean composition can really make a strong image, but you could try taking it a step further. Go for a minimal look using the subtlest of foregrounds. such as ripples on the surface of a lake. to really simplify things and give the subject breathing space and create a feeling of cam.

While the effect of creating distance between the foreground and background is one of the things i Love about wideangle lenses, it's also a potential problem. Positioning the camera at the rignt height and angle is important for getting just the right amount of separation between the foreground and background to create a nice flow through the image. Position the camera too high and there isi a danger of ending up with a lot of empty space b
etween the two, but get too low and there could be too little space thus spoiling the sense of depth.

The short focal lengths that we are using have an inherently good depth of dield, but this can be maximised by using a hyperfocal distance chart to choose the point of focus. The hyperfocal distance is basically the optimum point of focus for a given focal

length and aperture to achieve the greatest depth of field, and you can download a chart to keep in your camera bag or use the DOFmaster app for your smartphone. I also find that live view is invaluable for precise focus, especially with the camera positioned low on a tripod. It certainly beats crawling around on what usually a wet or muddy floor trying to look through the viewfinder. With the lens set to manual focus (and stabilisation switched off), you can pick the exact spot you wish to focus on and magnify up to 10x to ensure it is sharply focused, which is especially useful in low. light.

Foreground interest is a particularly effective landscape technique and, as such, it can be easy to become repetitive in your approach. On the occasions that i have been guilty of working on autopilot, i've found that it shows in the resulting images, so keep thinking about what you are trying to convey in your photography and aim to reflect that in our compositions.

Watch this video.